Automotive vehicles are commonly equipped with interior trim panels that are adapted to mount to the vehicle body. Certain trim panels are adapted to cover or conceal an air curtain deployment mechanism, and such trim panels must be rigidly attached to the car body frame to ensure that they are retained in place during air curtain deployment. If a trim panel is not adequately retained in position on a car body, the trim panel can become a dangerous projectile in a vehicle interior given the high rate of speed of deployment for air curtain deployment systems. Ideally, the trim panel remains connected to the car body during a static or dynamic air curtain deployment, such that the air curtain projects through the trim piece to protect the vehicle occupant.
Typically, trim pieces used to cover air curtain deployment mechanisms have required bolts or other like fasteners to attach the trim piece to the car body, thereby providing the rigid retainment necessary to keep the trim piece in place during air curtain deployment. Using a bolt or fastener to rigidly retain a trim piece to the car body requires access to the bolt head which is generally provided on a design side of a trim piece. The access locations are usually covered with plugs to conceal the fastener heads. The visible plugs interfere with the overall aesthetic appearance of the trim piece, and the fasteners used to rigidly retain the trim piece to the car body are not easily removed to provide access to the air curtain deployment mechanism which may require servicing. Thus, a need exists for a trim piece having a trim attachment system that provides attachment of the trim piece to the car body in a high retention manner so as to retain the trim piece on the car body frame during deployment of an air curtain deployment mechanism. Further, there is a need for the trim attachment system to provide easy access to the air deployment mechanism without the use of bolts or plugs to retain the trim piece to the car body.